Darwin’s Women

Lisa Glickstein, PhD

Consultant in Medicine, MGHGrants Coordinator, Andover Public Schools

What Darwin said about women

Sex, gender and sexuality Women in Darwin’s life

Family Colleagues and correspondents

Feminism, the education of women, and the “evolving” role of women in science

Overview & Themes

Charles Darwin, 1871

Sexual Selection

SexGenderSexuality

What makes a woman?

Fluid sex – some fish actually change sex (are

hermaphrodites with one sex is dominant at a time, or permanently), others are true hermaphrodites (spontaneous or exclusive), intersex

Fluid gender –hyenas in which females exhibit “masculine” traits, intersex, and gender-changing animals (fish & parthenogenic lizards)

Fluid sexuality – in many (perhaps all) species bi-sexuality can be observed, including exclusive same-sex pair-bonding and intercourse

Other Genders, other Sexes

Gyandromorph Cardinal

SRY

Sex-determining region Y – on the Y chromosome

Marsupials and placental mammals

“Female” program is dominant

Presence and activity of the SRY gene starts the “male” program

“Evolving” ideas of gender

Darwin and his…

Wedgwood Pottery

1790 1787

Susannah Wedgwood Darwin

Born in 1765 Educated at home

and at boarding school

Married to Robert Darwin in 1796

Charles was her fifth child, born in 1809

She died of a stomach ailment in 1817

Susannah’s education

Etruria Hall Boarding School

Boys’ Education

Mary Wollstonecraft

Born 1759 Thoughts on the Education

of Daughters (1787) A Vindication of the Rights

of Men (1790) A Vindication of the Rights

of Woman (1792) Natural and inalienable

rights Women and men have the

same ability to reason

Why educate girls?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy7N2G_Hz_Y&feature=youtu.be

Marianne, Caroline and

Susan They were 19, 17 and 14

(and Erasmus was 13) when their mother died, and took over the care of their father and home, including youngest siblings Charles and sister Emily

Maintained him in the Unitarian Church

None had scientific interests (according to Charles)

Darwin’s SistersMy dear CarolineI dare say I shall not be able to finish this letter, but I cannot help writing to thank you for your very nice and kind letter. It makes me feel how very ungrateful I have been to you for all the kindness and trouble you took for me when I was a child. Indeed I often cannot help wondering at my own blind Ungratefulness. I have tried to follow your advice about the Bible, what part of the Bible do you like best? I like the Gospels. Do you know which of them is generally reckoned the best? Do write to me again soon, for you do not know how I like receiving such letters as yours. The weather has been very pleasant for these few last days, but nevertheless I long to return very much. Dr. Hope has been giving some very good Lectures on Electricity &c. and I am very glad I stayed for them…(CD)

Emma Wedgwood Darwin

Born in 1808 Her father Josiah II

was Susannah Wedgewood Darwin’s brother

She had a similar education to her aunt Susannah

Talented pianist who even received several lessons from Chopin

Marry…Not Marry

It being proved necessary to Marry

When? Soon or Late[20]

The Governor says soon for otherwise bad if one has children— one’s character is more flexible—one’s feelings more lively & if one does not marry soon,[21] one misses so much good pure happiness.—

But then if I married tomorrow: there would be an infinity of trouble & expense in getting & furnishing a house,—fighting about no Society—morning calls—awkwardness—loss of time every day. (without one’s wife was an angel, & made one keep industrious).[22] Then how should I manage all my business if I were obliged to go every day walking with my[23] wife.— Eheu!! I never should know French,—or see the Continent—or go to America, or go up in a Balloon, or take solitary trip in Wales—poor slave.—you will be worse than a negro— And[24] then horrid poverty, (without one’s wife was better than an angel & had money)— Never mind my boy— Cheer up— One cannot live this solitary life, with groggy old age, friendless & cold, & childless staring one in ones face, already beginning to wrinkle.— Never mind, trust to chance—keep a sharp look out— There is many a happy slave—

Emma & Charles

Raised Unitarian (like many other non-aristocratic families)

Married in 1839 (ages 30 & 31)

Had ten children (last when Emma was 48)

Emma was his nurse, editor and secretary

She died in 1896 (age 88)

Life at Down House

Faith (EWD)

The state of mind that I wish to preserve with respect to you, is to feel that while you are acting conscientiously & sincerely wishing & trying to learn the truth, you cannot be wrong, but there are some reasons that force themselves upon me & prevent my being always able to give myself this comfort.

May not the habit in scientific pursuits of believing nothing till it is proved, influence your mind too much in other things which cannot be proved in the same way, & which if true are likely to be above our comprehension.

Every thing that concerns you concerns me & I should be most unhappy if I thought we did not belong to each other forever

When I am dead, know that many times, I have kissed & cryed over this. C. D.

Nannie Helen BurroughsEducator, orator, religious leader, civil rights activist, feminist and businesswoman

For a number of years there has been a righteous discontent, a burning zeal to go forward in His] name among the Baptist women of our churches and it will be the dynamic force in the religious campaign at the opening of the 20th century.

Did the Darwins have a Traditional Marriage?

Biblical view of man – centrality, man’s unique status

Darwin’s view of man – one element of the fabric of nature

Biblical view of woman – vulnerability, sin, serving man

Darwin’s view of woman – weakness, vulnerability, nurturing man

Nature versus NurturePragmatism

Caroline Kennard – abolitionist, Association for

the Advancement of Women, botanist Elizabeth Garrett Anderson – first British woman

qualified to practice medicine (as a woman, not as a man), medical school dean, mayor

Antoinette Brown Blackwell – women’s rights activist, social reformer, first ordained woman minister in the US, scientist and author

Lydia Ernestine Becker – suffragist, botanist, astronomer

Darwin’s Correspondents

Mary Davis Treat

Born in 1830 Married in 1863 to Dr.

Joseph Burrell Treat He lectured on

astronomy, physics, women's rights, atheism, abolitionism and Transcendentalism

Moved to Vineland NJ (part of the utopian community movement)

As a scientist

First publication was a note in the American Entomologist and Botanist (1869)

Later she also published articles in The American Naturalist, The Journal of the New York Entomological Society and in popular magazines such as the Harper's Monthly and Lippincott's

In 28 years she wrote 76 scientific and popular articles and five books

Injurious Insects of the Farm and Field (1882) was reprinted five times.

Separated from her husband in 1874 and supported herself.Lived in Vineland, with visits to Florida.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

Women in Science, c. 1850

Men in Science, c. 1850

Charles Darwin, 1871

Frances Julia Wedgewood

Born in 1833, nicknamed “Snow”

Deaf and thus largely self-taught

English feminist novelist, biographer, historian and literary critic

Religious (wrote a biography of John Wesley, founded of the Methodist movement)

Wrote a major critical review of Origin

Harriet Darwin Litchfield

Born in 1843 Edited Descent of Man

for her father; she was his 'dear coadjutor & fellow-labourer'

Married in 1871, the year Descent was published (no children)

Edited her mother’s books also

Lucretia MottElizabeth Cady Stanton

World Anti-Slavery Convention (1840), were not allowed to speak

Seneca Falls Convention (1848) was the response – birth of the women’s rights movement

Women were not allowed to speak in public

Women were required by law to turn over their pay to their husbands

Women were not legal guardians of their own children

Married women could not sign contracts

Maria W. Stewart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPZEHW71EnQ

Susan B. Anthony

First cause: temperance As a delegate to the state

temperance convention she was not allowed to speak

Same thing happened at the World Temperance Convention (1853)

NYS Teacher’s Convention – fought for equal pay and the right to speak

Also an abolitionist

Proposed in 1878 Not ratified until 1920

Nineteenth Amendment

Philosophy - natural and inalienable rights Multiple systems of education, but a focus on

classics (philosophy) The association of radical movements –

revolution, temperance, religious dissent, utopianism, abolition, women’s rights

Dual spheres –religion(s) and science – home and public lives – coming into conflict

Themes